


Taken

by AriDesert



Category: jacksepticeye
Genre: Dehydration, I go in like a man - unprepared and useless, Kidnapping, uhhh
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-11
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-09-16 06:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16948764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AriDesert/pseuds/AriDesert
Summary: Anti kidnaps JJ's brothers and JJ has to find them before Anti ends them





	1. So it Begins

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! This is my first time posting on Ao3, so please be nice. I hope you enjoy the story!

Jameson stood from his desk and stretched. He had been drawing hunched over for a while now. Glancing at the watch on his wrist, he realized it had been longer than he thought.

_ Three hours! Jeepers, no wonder I’m so hungry. _

He decided to go find something to eat, and maybe see if any of his brothers needed him for anything. He tidied up his desk before heading out to the kitchen. On the way down the hall he peeked into his brother’s rooms, wondering what they were up to. 

Jameson could see into Jack’s empty room that was across the hall from his and felt a twinge of worry.

_ I hope Jack wakes up soon.  _ JJ thought,  _ I’m worried about us. _

Then was Chase’s room, which was also empty. JJ wasn’t too worried about that, Chase could have been recording, or chilling downstairs. Jackie’s room was closed, so was Henrik’s. 

JJ started to worry when he found Marv’s room empty. Marv was almost always in his room, practicing his magic. But JJ couldn’t hear or see Marv. He tried to push his worry back and rationalize it. 

_ Maybe they’re out on a walk. _ JJ hoped. But when he got downstairs and didn’t find any kind of note saying where his brothers were, his worry intensified and fear seeped in. They always made sure to tell him when they were all out together. 

JJ didn’t have a phone so he couldn’t call or text any of them to find out where they were, and he was scared to leave the house in case they came back to find him missing. 

As he stood there, trying to decide what to do, several small thuds sounded behind him. He whirled, no one was there, but things his brothers never went without were. 

Chase’s phone, Jackie’s mask, Henrik’s stethoscope and Marv’s deck of cards. 

Trembling, JJ picked them up. And nearly dropped them when he saw what was on them. There was blood on everything, and Chase’s phone was cracked. JJ’s trembling turned into full scale shaking. 

Dread soaking his body, JJ tore through the house again, knowing he wouldn’t find anything but desperately denying that his brothers were missing and hurt. He opened his mouth to yell for them, but no sound came out. For the millionth time, JJ cursed his broken voice. 

After searching the house four more times, JJ collapsed on the couch in the living room, clutching his brothers things and sobbing.

**“Poor little man.”**

JJ spun around and saw someone who looked like him and his brothers, but his neck was wounded and bleeding. One of his eyes was glowing slightly green and he was tossing a knife around. 

**“Scared for your brothers, unable to call for them,”** the man started glitching and grinned evilly,  **“Perfect.”**

JJ tried to stand up, but his legs were trembling too much and he fell back to the couch. He couldn’t even sign to ask where his brothers were.

**“I’m bored little man.”** The glitch man walked closer to JJ,  **“So I came up with a game. I took your brothers and talked to them a little,”** JJ fell off the couch trying to stay away from this demon.  **“They were very worried about you, you know. So I decided to play with that.”**

The glitch man bent over and plucked Jackie’s mask from JJ’s hands. He regarded it for a moment before tossing it back to JJ.

**“Here’s the game, little man, you have to find your brothers and convince them that you wanted me to take them. If they still accept you after that, you can have them back.”**

The glitch man put a foot on JJ and leaned,  **“But if you can’t, I get to break them. You can start with the wannabe hero.”**

He got off JJ and laughed,  **“I look forward to your performance little man.”**

 

For several minutes after the glitch left, JJ stayed on the floor. He was terrified. Jackie was the one who dealt with scary and painful things. 

_ I have to get them to hate me? _

That was the scariest part to JJ. Even when he found his brothers, he would have to convince them to hate him. The thought crushed him. He didn’t think he could last without his brothers. 

_ I have to think of a way to tell them, a way to fool the glitch. _

JJ stared at his brothers things in his hand and a thought struck him when his eyes landed on Marv’s deck of cards. 

_ Marv said everyone has a signature in their tricks. Maybe I can do something that will trick the glitch and help my brothers.  _ JJ got up and ran back to his room,  _ But what can I do? _

He glared at the drawing on his desk, it was a portrait of all of them together and it seemed to mock him now. Until he looked at the outfit he had drawn on Chase. It was like the one Chase had worn when he was trying to get visitation rights for his kids. 

Chase had come to JJ’s room one morning and asked if he would help Chase get everything right. A single glance at Chase’s suit had irritated JJ. There wasn’t much out of place, but what was wrong was enough to bother JJ. 

After JJ had finished helping and Chase had left, Jackie stopped by and asked for help too. While JJ was helping, Jackie had remarked that everyone could tell when JJ had been the one to clean, or help dress someone. When JJ had asked why Jackie laughed and said “Because you pay the most attention to details.”

_ Maybe I can talk to them that way. _

JJ had the beginning of an idea how to trick the glitch, but first he had to find his brothers. 

The glitch had said that JJ had to start by finding Jackie, but JJ had no idea how to start there. He stared angrily at Jackie’s mask. He was scared, and he hated being scared. 

_ What would Jackie do? How do I find them in this huge city?  _

The thought occurred to JJ that he could put up posters of his brothers, but he waved it away. 

_ That wouldn’t work, the glitch would see them and so would they. ….So will they. If I take the posters down and hide them somewhere my brothers will find, but the glitch won’t….. _

JJ checked Chase’s phone to see if it still worked. It did and he looked through the photos for any pictures of the others. When he found ones he thought would work, JJ printed out piles of them with Chase’s number on the bottom. 

JJ then went to the recording room with a recording device Marv had given him a while ago and found a clip of Chase saying “thank you.” And then went out to put up the posters. 

 

JJ let many of the first phone calls go to voicemail and then listened to them after. None of them were very helpful, mostly dead ends and flat out lies. But he did get a few that helped immensely, and by the time two and a half weeks had gone by with JJ scouring the city and using the tips from the calls, he found where Jackie was. 


	2. Chapter 2

JJ stood at the top of a small staircase leading down to a dingy looking door. 

_ …. Was the glitch trying to be cliche?  _

It was almost sunset and even if there was still light, the place was creepy and a little scary. 

_ Even if it was, I’m still scared. _

JJ took a deep breath and walked down the stairs. He tried the door, it was open. Even though it looked really old, it didn’t make any sound as it swung open other than a quiet thud as it hit something on the other side. 

JJ took Chase’s phone out of his pocket and turned on the flashlight feature. 

_ This is just like one of those horror movies that Marv likes to watch.  _ JJ thought to himself as he walked into the building. It wasn’t that big at first glance, but then JJ discovered a door in the back wall that opened up into a hallway. He tried all the doors he saw, some of them were locked, some of them were open but Jackie wasn’t in them. 

JJ was starting to think that this had been another dead end when he heard something rattling  from up ahead. He wanted to just run towards the rattling and get this over with, but he forced himself to keep looking through each room he came across that he could open. When he finally stood in front of the door that the rattling was coming from he started shaking. If Jackie really was here then JJ would have to act like he hated his brother. 

_ Pull yourself together Jameson! _ He snapped at himself,  _ If you don’t do this Jackie will die! Better he live hating you than die because you were too scared.  _

He opened the door just enough to see into the room. Jackie was there, handcuffed to a metal pipe sticking out from a wall. The rattling had been Jackie moving the handcuffs along the pipe. He froze when he saw the door open, then he saw that it was JJ opening the door and his eyes lit up. 

JJ tried to stop his shaking and stepped into the room. Now that he was closer to Jackie he could see bruises and small patches of blood on Jackie’s hero suit. 

“JJ! What are you doing here? How did you find me? Are the others okay?” 

Jackie pelted JJ with questions while JJ stood over him, mentally preparing himself for hat he had to do now. 

“What’s wrong JJ? Here, let me out before-” JJ covered Jackie’s mouth and dropped the mask in his lap. 

_ Shut up. _ JJ signed when he knew Jackie wouldn’t interrupt,  _ I don’t even know why I came looking for you, all you do is chatter.  _ Jackie stared up at JJ,  _ And you can’t even see what’s right under your nose.  _

JJ’s hands started to shake again and he hoped his brother would think it was from anger and not fear or despair. 

“What do you mean?” Jackie asked slowly, “What haven’t I seen?” 

JJ tried to put on a mocking expression,  _ Even now I have to spell it out for you?  _ I  _ wanted you gone, all of you. The glitch just happened to be willing to make that happen. _

Something shiny caught JJ’s eye on the floor just out of Jackie’s reach. It looked like the key to the cuffs. JJ picked it up, but waited to unlock the cuffs. He knew if he let his brother up now he’d probably be forced to tell the truth and JJ also knew that he couldn’t do this much longer. 

“You’re lying,” Jackie whispered, “There’s no way you mean that.” 

JJ knelt down and looked his brother in the eye,  _ Have I ever lied to you? _

While Jackie floundered for an answer JJ reaches out and ran his fingers through Jackie’s hair, smoothing it down. Then he straightened Jackie’s Hero suit as best he could. His heart pounded in his chest as he hoped and prayed his brother believed his actions, rather than his words. As an afterthought, he put Jackie’s mask back on. 

_ If it were up to me, I would have left you all to rot here, but I can’t run the channel myself unfortunately. I need someone who can talk.  _

JJ put the key in Jackie’s hand and left the room, ducking into the first empty room he came across to hide in when he heard his brother shouting his name.

“Jameson Jackson! Leave my brothers alone!” 

JJ’s heart shattered when he heard Jackie call them “his brothers.” It meant that he really believed what JJ had said, that he hated JJ now. 

There was a soft thud behind JJ and he whirled around to see Chase’s hat and a note. 

**“You pass little man, here’s the next brother who will abandon you.”**

JJ couldn’t take it anymore, he collapsed into the floor and sobbed, clutching his brothers hat to his chest. 

 

Jackie ran through the hall, calling for JJ and ignoring the twinges of pain from all over his body. He almost didn’t believe what had just happened, but JJ hadn’t ever lied to anyone and the look on his face when he told Jackie that he wanted them gone had been very convincing. 

Jackie tripped and slammed to the floor. He stayed there for a few moments, trying to catch his breath and to keep the tears from falling. 

_ This can’t be happening.  _ Jackie thought,  _ It can’t. JJ wouldn’t do that to us, but his face. It can’t be happening.  _

Jackie forced himself up and went to find the exit.  _ You can think about this after you get home,  _ he scolded himself,  _ It didn’t look like JJ was hurt, so go home and take care of yourself. _

Jackie stumbled out to the staircase and took a minute to get his bearings. When he knew where he was he started slogging his way home. 

_ ……If JJ really felt that way about me, he wouldn’t have tried to straighten my suit, he never does that for anyone he doesn’t like.  _

Jackie chewed on that thought the whole way home. The first thing he did when he got there was to look for the first aid kit Henrik had kept for him. He found it in a cabinet in the kitchen. He took it to the bathroom and got to work cleaning the little cuts and scrapes he had gotten. Exhaustion hit him like a truck when he was halfway done, it was almost more than he could do to keep his eyes open and finish cleaning up. When he did he couldn’t even make it back to the kitchen to put the first aid kit away, he just put it on a shelf in the living room and collapsed onto the couch. 

His last conscious thought was that he needed to see for himself that JJ really hated them, that if JJ was in trouble he needed to help.


	3. Chapter 3

Back in the building where Jackie had been, JJ was still curled up on the floor. His tears had stopped a little while ago, but he couldn’t muster the energy to get up off the floor and go find Chase. He already had an idea of where to look thanks to the posters and the calls, but he knew that if he got the same reaction from Chase that Jackie had there would be no way he could keep going.

And to do this to  _ Chase _ . He had already gone through the divorce with Stacy and lost his kids, now JJ had to reject him to. 

_ Stop thinking, stop thinking Stop Thinking STOP THINKING _

JJ whacked his head against the floor, trying to make everything in his head be quiet. It worked, for a little bit. 

_ Okay, what I need to do now is plan.  _ JJ sat up and leaned against a wall with Chase’s hat propped up on his knees. He also pulled out Chase’s phone and opened the maps. He had marked an address that seemed to be in the middle of where all the tips had pointed him to. 

_ That’s not actually too far from here.  _ JJ thought to himself as he studied the map.  _ An hour’s walk maybe? But it’s getting dark, if it isn’t already, and I’m not very familiar with this city.  _ JJ traced his finger along the map, plotting out his route.  _ Jackie’s much more familiar with this place, so maybe I should go now. _

JJ put Chase’s hat on and stood up. He knew that even if all he did was wait the night out when he found Chase, it would be better to get there now while Jackie was probably at home and healing.

_ I hope Jackie doubts just enough to look for the clues I left them.  _ JJ thought back to the drawing of them all he had left on his desk, the posters he had hid in each of their rooms. He hoped that he wasn’t a good enough actor to make even his closest friends believe he really wanted this. JJ had left little tiny notes all over the house as well, just a single word each. 

JJ came to a crosswalk and checked the map, a little shocked to find that he was already at the address. It was to his right, and he wondered if maybe the glitch had hidden Chase somewhere in this building, it was huge. And it looked to be abandoned. There were weeds growing up the sides of the building and some of the windows were broken, smashed in maybe? 

JJ walked around the building until he found a door and tried it. He was simultaneously surprised and not surprised at all when it opened for him. 

_ It’ll take half a day to search this whole place for one person!  _ JJ thought to himself when he found the staircase and looked up. JJ counted at least three floors, and he had found the staircase on the other side of the door he had come in through.  _ Maybe I should wait the night out.  _ JJ looked around for a spot that looked somewhat comfortable and sat down to wait.

 

When JJ opened his eyes, light was pouring in through the windows and he was stiff from sitting still all night. He sighed and got up, stretching as he went. He went back to the staircase and looked up, trying to decide if he wanted to start from the top or bottom. The longer he stared at the stairs, the less he wanted to climb them. 

_ Well then, top it is.  _ He thought to himself and forced himself up the stairs. The first thing he did when he got to the top was look out the window. 

_ The view is amazing up here, no wonder Jackie likes being up high when he’s out on patrol.  _

That was a dangerous thought, if Jackie liked to be up high when he’s on patrol, who’s to say he was somewhere he could see JJ, but JJ couldn’t see him? 

JJ shook his head and focused on the task at hand. Looking for Chase here was like looking for Jackie last night. Only now there were four floors and a lot more rooms to go through. 

JJ got through two floors before he found any kind of clue that Chase was actually in this building. There were scuff marks on the floor by the stairs that JJ hadn’t noticed on his way up. He followed the marks to the northern side of the building. 

The marks on the floor stopped, but now there was a sound to follow, and JJ knew that it was Chase because he had found out that Chase couldn’t stand being in a quiet place so if there wasn’t enough ambient sound Chase would make his own. 

Just like yesterday, JJ stood in front of a door that had a brother behind it. Unlike yesterday though, JJ really was angry. He hated the glitch for putting them in this situation and he hated even more that he wasn’t strong enough to fight the glitch and not do any of this. 

JJ slammed the door open this time, scaring Chase into silence. He marched over to Chase and mashed his hat onto its owners head. 

_ Do you know how much trouble you have caused me?  _

JJ tried to make his signs look snappish and put on an irritated expression.

_ With you and then rest gone the channel went to shit and I had to look all over the city to find you!  _

JJ knelt in front of Chase and started brushing dirt off his clothes and straightening the jacket. Chase was silent through all of this, staring at JJ like he had grown two extra heads and had just finished telling him his kids were hurt. Then his expression morphed into one of confusion. 

“JJ, what happened?” 

JJ stopped fussing with the ropes around his brothers wrists and ankles to return the stare. JJ cursed inwardly, Chase had spent more time with him than any of his other brothers so of course he’d need to put on a harsher act. 

Still furious at the glitch and channeling it out into this situation, JJ shoved his brother over. 

_ Nothing happened!  _ He signed forcefully,  _ I knew none of you wanted me, that you didn’t need me, so I decided to get rid of you before you could do it to me.  _

“Well,” Chase said a little too calmly for JJ to like, “You didn’t plan it out very well if you had to come find us again.” 

_ Maybe not, _ JJ hates himself for what he was going to say next,  _ But I’m going to make sure you’re as miserable as I was.  _ He looked at Chase’s eyes and prayed to anyone listening that his tears weren’t showing.  _ I told Stacy that the alcohol had stopped working for you, so you turned to drugs.  _

JJ watched as Chase’s expression turned from trying to understand what was happening to pure horror when he registered what JJ had told him. 

“You didn’t.” He whispered. JJ took the time to finish untying the ropes. 

_ I did. Good luck going to see your kids now. _

With that JJ left the room and dashed out of the building before Chase could get up and try to corner him. He turned into the second alley he noticed and stumbled to a halt. 

The defeat and utter despair in Chase’s voice rung in JJ’s head, but no matter what JJ did to make it stop, it only got louder. Soon Jackie yelling to leave his brothers alone started replaying along with Chase. 

“ _ Leave my brothers alone! You didn’t. Leave my brothers alone! You didn’t.”  _

JJ was knew he was in the beginnings of a panic attack, but his trick of focusing on something else couldn’t help this time. He wasn’t sure how long he stood there in that alley trying to calm down before something white flashed in front of him. Looking down he saw Marv’s mask and another note. 

**“Nice touch with the kids, little man. Have fun with the next one.”**


	4. Chapter 4

Jackie woke up to the sound of someone crashing around the house and screaming. He instantly leapt to his feet and looked around to find the source of the noise. 

“It’s not true! It can’t be true! Where would he hide it?” It sounded like Chase was home. It also sounded like JJ had talked to him the same way he had talked to Jackie. 

“I found it!” Chase came barreling out into the living room holding a piece of paper carefully in his left hand and a different paper clutched in his right hand. He skidded to a stop when he saw Jackie awake and standing. 

“Did JJ find you too?” He demanded, “Did he try to make you hate him? Did you actually fall for it?” 

Jackie stared at Chase for a moment before the things he had asked registered in his mind. He opened his mouth to answer, but Chase had already rushed off to a different part of the house, talking over his shoulder.

“JJ found me and said some pretty mean things, but he also straightened my clothes and didn’t try to do anything that would physically hurt me, what about you?”

Jackie trailed behind his brother, “No.. the only thing he did to me was say some mean things, but then he let me go.” 

Chase turned around and practically shoved the pieces of paper he was holding in Jackie’s face. One was a drawing of all of them together, the other was a missing poster of Jackie with a caption that said; “Please help me find my brothers, they’ve gone missing and I need help to find them.”

The bottom was ragged, like many people had ripped pieces off. 

“Did JJ put that up?” Jackie asked, Chase scoffed and asked if he knew of any other brothers who could have made them and put them up. 

“I found ones for me and Marv and Henrik in our rooms. This one was in yours along with a word on the back.”

Jackie took the poster from Chase and turned it over to see the word Chase meant. It said “forced” in JJ’s handwriting. 

“If there was a note like this on the poster, I figured JJ might have hid some more around the house.” Chase whirled around so fast he almost sacked into a wall. It was then that Jackie noticed some cuts and bruises on his brother and grabbed his arm. 

“Chase, calm down for a minute and let me clean those cuts.” Chase sputtered out something about how they had to help JJ, but Jackie dragged him back to the living room and pressed him down to sit on the couch. 

“We can’t help JJ if you’re dead tired and smacking into walls,” he told his brother sternly. “Let me clean the cuts and then we can look for more clues JJ might have left us, okay?”

Jackie kept his hand on Chase’s shoulder until he gave in and sank back into the couch. Jackie got up and went to the kitchen for a bowl of warm water and something to use to clean his brother. When he knelt back down in front of his brother he found that Chase was already asleep. Jackie wrestled with Chase’s jacket to get it off and lay him down so he wouldn’t be sore when he woke up. Then he got to work cleaning the cuts he could get to without waking Chase up. He was dismayed when he lifted Chase’s shirt to find that there were huge bruises all over his torso. Some of them were yellow and almost gone, but most of them were still dark. 

_ I hope he doesn't have any internal injuries,  _ Jackie thought to himself,  _ I don’t know how to find or treat those and for all I know the doc is in the same condition or worse.  _

Once he had finished cleaning what he could of his brother, Jackie went looking for more clues that JJ might have left them. He wandered into his own room first, slightly amused when he saw that Chase had thrown things around in his haste to find proof that JJ was being forced into all this. Jackie grabbed some clothes to change into since he had been in his hero suit for days. 

He found another note in his dresser, and he was a little confused when he read it. It was more than one word this time, but it didn’t make any sense with the word they had found on his missing poster. 

“If I don’t he’ll” 

“If you don’t what, who will do what, JJ?” Jackie wondered out loud, “The glitch?” 

Jackie put the note in his pocket and kept looking around the house. As he went around the house he noticed all the drawings JJ had done that had gone up on the walls. Many of them were of two or more of the brothers laughing and having a good time. There was only one or two drawings where they looked sad, but those ones were part of a series where the next drawing was of them cheering up. 

The more Jackie looked at the drawings and the more notes he found the more he believed that JJ  _ had  _ been acting when he said those things to Jackie. JJ hadn’t ever lied to any of them, and Jackie knew that fear for people you cared about could drive to do things no one would have dreamed you could do. 

Jackie wished he could take back what he had said to JJ after he had been freed. If JJ was doing this for them then the only thing Jackie had done was make it harder. Jackie went back to the kitchen and started making food for him and Chase, they wouldn’t be able to help their brothers if they were too hungry to do anything right.


End file.
